Wastewater Treatment

D. JIM LIVINGSTON
Asst. Prof. of Chemistry.
 Where does it all go!
Where does the When you flush the
water from the toilet where does
washer go? the contents go?

By gravity flow, the waste is on its way

to your local wastewater treatment plant!
 What is wastewater
treatment
• Process of removing contaminants from
wastewater, both runoff and domestic
 Phosphorus is the major agent triggering
eutrophication (algeal blooms) in freshwaters

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 Nitrogen can cause algea
growth in freshwater in
alpine regions

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Refractory Organics
Pathogens
Biodegradable
organics
 Priority Pollutants
• Priority Pollutants refer to a list of 126
specific pollutants that includes heavy
metals and specific organic chemicals.
• The priority pollutants are a subset of
"toxic pollutants" as defined in the
Clean Water Act (USA)
 Suspended solids
• Suspended solids refers to small solid
particles which remain as suspension in
water as a colloid or due to the motion
of the water
 Why treat wastewater?
• Causes a demand for dissolved oxygen
(lower DO levels of streams)

• Adds nutrients (nitrate and phosphate)

to cause excessive growth

• Increases suspended solids or sediments

in streams (turbidity increase)
 Goals
• To produce waste stream (effluent)
• To produce solid waste (sludge)
• To discharge or reuse them back into
the environment
The objectives of sewage treatment will always
include the reduction of the concentration of
different contaminants.
 Methods of Removal

The contaminants in wastewater are removed by

different unit processes:

 Physical (sedimetation, flotation, screening,

filtration)
 Biological (trickling filters, RBC, activated sludge)
 Chemical (chemical precipitation, ozonation,
chlorination)

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 stages of water treatment
• Preliminary Treatment
• Primary Treatment
• solids are separated

• Secondary Treatment
• dissolved biological matter is converted into a solid mass by
using water-borne bacteria
• 95% of the suspended molecules should be removed

• Tertiary Treatment
• biological solids are neutralized then disposed, and treated
water may be disinfected chemically or physically
 Preliminary Treatment
• Removal of large objects
• Ex: sticks, toilet paper,
• Removal of floating materials
• Ex: leaves, papers, rags
• Removal of fats, oils, and greases
(aka FOG)
 Equipments used in pre
treatment
• Screeners

• Grit Chambers

• Skimming Tanks
 Screeners
• To remove the floating materials and
suspended particles

• coarse screen
• larger openings (75-150 mm)
 Medium Screen

• 20-50 mm opening
 Fine screens

• less than 20 mm size.

• used to remove fine solids
 Grit Chambers
• Grit chambers are long narrow tanks that are
designed to slow down the flow of wastewater.
• In doing so, heavy materials (specific gravity 2.4-2.7)
like sand, ash and others can be removed.
• This technique is based on the process of
sedimentation due to gravitational forces.
• Grit chambers may be kept either before or after
the screens.
 Skimming Tanks
• used to remove floating substances like grease, oil, fats, soap,
fruit skins etc
• When the flow enters the skimming tank, these floating matters
will rises and remains in the surface of wastewater and
subsequently removed. The clear wastewater is removed either
through an outlet places in the bottom of tank or through
partitions given at the bottom sidewalls.
 Parkway
Sewagesheds WWTP
- an area where
sewage is collected
and delivered to a Bowie WWTP
WWPT
Western
Blue Plains Branch
WWTP WWTP
Marlboro
Meadows
Piscataway
WWTP
WWTP

Mattawoman
WWTP approximate
boundaries
 Where do you locate the
WWTP in the watershed?
A

D
Consider the four possible sites.
 The volume of wastewater
35 WWTP Capacity
30 Average Flow
million gallon/day

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PGC 1992 Comprehensive Ten Year Water and Sewerage Plan

 Levels of Treatment
Primary
– removal by physical separation of grit and large
objects (material to landfill for disposal)
Mostly dead
Secondary microbes

– aerobic microbiological process (sludge)

organic matter + O2  CO2 + NH3 + H2O
NH3  NO3- aquatic nutrient

- lowers suspended solids content (into sludge)

 Secondary process
From primary process

To tertiary process
air Aeration Settling
diffuser and rapid collects sludge
mixing on bottom
 Levels of Treatment continued
Tertiary (advanced)
– anaerobic microbiological process with a
different microbe where O2 is toxic (more
sludge)
NO3-  N2 (escapes to atmosphere)

– PO4-3 if not removed in sludge in secondary

process
PO4-3 + Al+3  AlPO4 (s) (into sludge)

- aeration to strip N2 and re-oxygenate (add DO)

From secondary process
Tertiary process

add methanol as food source

Effluent
Slow mixing Settling
to keep suspended collects sludge
and O2 out on bottom
When the treatment is done…
• Effluent back to stream after
– a final carbon filtration and
– chlorination/dechlorination

• Sludge – very nutrient rich

– applied directly to land as fertilizer
– incinerated (good fuel after drying)
– composted (Compro® from WSSC)

Note – Leafgro® is composted

leaves and grass from MES